Florida's Latest News

DeSantis estimates he’ll visit all 99 Iowa counties by end of October

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) said Thursday that he expects to visit all 99 counties in Iowa by the end of October as his campaign hones in on the early caucus state.

“We said we’re going to do all 99 counties in Iowa. That’s something that’s important, we’re going to do it. … They’ve campaigned with us, but they’ve never really done this whole bus deal,” DeSantis said during a live broadcast of the conservative “Ruthless Podcast” in Des Moines, speaking about his children joining him on the campaign trail. 

“So we started taking them on the bus. We hit all these places. So we’ve now done 32 of the 99. Tomorrow we’re going to do another six counties, and we are probably going to have all 99 by the end of October,” he continued.

The Florida governor is in Iowa this week and is scheduled to appear at the Iowa State Fair on Saturday — the same day as former President Trump.

DeSantis’s comments come as the Florida governor is looking to do what’s dubbed in Iowa as the “full Grassley” by visiting all 99 counties in Iowa. His campaign’s strategy to lean into more local, county-driven events underscores how DeSantis is lasering in on the early caucus state.

DeSantis supports offshore drilling and fracking, just not in Florida

Gov. Ron DeSantis would allow offshore drilling and fracking in the U.S. as president, as long as it’s not in Florida.

The position is part of DeSantis’ plan to “unleash American energy independence,” while maintaining Florida as the only Gulf state without rigs, refineries and pipelines dotting its coast.

“We have a constitutional amendment that does not allow offshore drilling. And so that’s something that we honor,” DeSantis said about Florida while revealing his economic plan in New Hampshire last week. “That is not saying that I think that should apply to Louisiana or Texas. So that will continue.”

DeSantis has argued that the protection of Florida’s coastlines is essential to the state’s economy.

In 2022, he campaigned for reelection as governor on protecting Florida’s beaches from a oil spills and working with the state Legislature to ban fracking across the state, though the fracking ban hasn’t come to fruition. Fracking is the process of injecting water and chemicals deep into the ground to extract fossil fuels.

Florida is receiving $910M for Hurricane Ian recovery. Officials say that's a fraction of what's needed

Florida is set to receive an additional $910 million for Hurricane Ian recovery efforts in 20 impacted counties, including Hillsborough, Pinellas, Hardee and DeSoto counties.

The Community Development Block Grant-Disaster Recovery (CDBG-DR) funds were awarded by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) in March. The funds were designed to better support resiliency and equity in recovery for all impacted communities.

“We know that far too often, not-so-privileged households bear the brunt of weather-related disasters. We will ensure they have access to the resources they need to rebuild and recover, equitably," according to a written statement by HUD Secretary Marcia L. Fudge.

The nearly $1 billion doesn't include the funding provided to four severely impacted counties (Lee, Orange, Volusia and Sarasota counties), including $201.5 million granted directly to Sarasota County.

Teachers union: School starting with record numbers of teacher, staff vacancies

As schools start opening across Florida, the state’s largest teachers union expects it’s going to be one for the history books: A record-high number of educators are missing from the classroom.

The Florida Education Association (FEA), representing about 150,000 educators, said they counted 6,920 teacher vacancies advertised on county school district websites. That’s a 15% increase from last year, when there were a record 6,006 teacher vacancies, according to an August 2022 count.

For support staff, there are 5,072 vacancies, up 6% from last August. Those positions include aides and bus drivers.

FEA first began counting advertised vacancies for teachers in August 2016, when there were 2,400 open teaching positions listed on websites, union officials said.